Feasibility Assessment: Municipal Political Module Part 2

November 5, 2024

Back to: Colorado Challenge Accelerator Program | Module #3 | BOOSTING COMMUNITY BUY-IN FOR YOUR PROJECT: DEFINING THE STRATEGY

Feasibility Assessment: Political

In this module please start the POLITICAL SECTION of the Assessment. This form focuses on MUNICIPAL INFORMATION in your community. Once you've completed the Municipal/Political section, press 'Save and Continue Later'. You will complete the Site/Political section in the next module. You do not need to complete the full form yet.

To Successfully Complete this Activity...

Focus your municipal information for now. You will continue to fill out this assessment throughout the process
Pull out any planning reports or studies that will help you identify your community's stated goals

DCI Feasibility Tetrad for Municipal Review

Welcome to the DCI Feasibility Tetrad Assessment! The tetrad is designed to gain insight into your community, as well as the green flags that make a particular site or use case scenario more feasible than others, helping you priorities your efforts, investments, and incentives.

There are four lenses in a tetrad, and the feasibility lenses you can access here include:

Physical - Engineering, Transportation, and Environmental concerns
Political - The vision and policies that guide your community
Financial - The monetary (and other) resources and policies you have to instigate development
Legal - Your planning and entitlement process for development

The Feasibility Tetrad can also work as a stand-alone review of your municipal preparations to make private-public partnerships more feasible, highlight your community strengths, and outline next steps to make your community more enticing for development. Use the tetrad for multiple site and use scenarios and compare them side by side, or revisit the tetrad annually to measure your progress on your municipal work plan.

To assist with using and understanding this tool, we recommend participation in the Colorado Challenge Accelerator Online Education Program found online at www.downtowncoloradoinc.org. The courses, resources, and webinars in the program walk participants through each section of the feasibility tetrad to create manageable learning lessons.

We appreciate you taking the time to use this tool, understand your strengths for economic development, help build community capacity, and improve the viability for economic development projects in your community. Special thanks to Kansas State University's Technical Assistance to Brownfields program, Andy Arnold, Principal of Pioneer Development Company, and Jim Heid, AICP, Principal of CRAFTDnA in developing the Feasibility Tetrad concepts and tools.

"*" indicates required fields

Address*

Which community do you represent?

Municipality State ZIP Code

Municipality*

Tetrad Section Selection*

Choose your Tetrad Lens: Select the lens you would like to work on. As you select, the survey tool will appear below.

Physical

Political

Financial

Legal

Physical Tetrad

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Physical Municipal Conditional Section

Rate the following items in your community on a scale from 1-4 overall, with 1 being 'Poor' and 4 being 'Excellent'. Select 0-No Response if you choose not to answer.

Transportation

Transportation 1*

Overall street network, capacity + design

Transportation 2*

Active transportation in town? (Bike, pedestrian, alt.)

Transportation 3*

Ability of existing transportation to meet expected growth

Transportation 4*

Quality of relationship with your state transportation agency

Transportation 5*

Your community's proactive transportation planning

Environmental

Environmental 1*

Wetlands and preservation programs in town

Environmental 2*

Ability to obtain permits and approvals for historic structures

Environmental 3*

Community brownfield programs

Environmental 4*

Frequency of municipal brownfields assessments, or funding provided for private assessments

Engineering

Engineering 1*

Your municipal enterprise or service district water capacity

Engineering 2*

Your municipal enterprise or service district sewer capacity

Engineering 3*

Your municipal enterprise or service district electric capacity

Engineering 4*

Relationship with enterprise district service partners

Engineering 5*

Ability for your capital improvement plan to meet infrastructure needs

Engineering 6*

Prompt engineering and building reviews

Engineering 7*

Ability to extend utility service infrastructure without encountering difficult geography or geology

Physical Tetrad Green Flags

Answer 'Yes' or 'No' to the following questions to see how many green flags your municipality and the catalyst site + planned use has.

Municipal

Municipal P1*

Have you conducted a traffic safety study in the last 2 years?

Yes

Municipal P2*

Do your major commercial areas have a state highway serving as 'Main Street'?

Yes

Municipal P3*

Are you on the Statewide Transport Improvement Program (STIP)?

Yes

Municipal P4*

Has your development code been updated in the last 3 years?

Yes

Municipal P5*

How many sites in your community would you like remediated of environmental concerns and redeveloped (i.e. brownfields)? Most buildings constructed during or before the 1980s may need asbestos or lead-based paint abatement prior to redevelopment. Underutilized commercial or industrial sites, or nearby parcels or uses, may also impact a site. Utilize KSU TAB e-tools for more information.

Political Tetrad

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Political Municipal Conditional

Rate the following items in your community on a scale from 1-4 overall, with 1 being 'Poor' and 4 being 'Excellent'. Select 0-No Response if you choose not to answer.

Vision

Vision 1*

Local support for your comprehensive + strategic plans

Vision 2*

Compatibility of comprehensive + strategic plans with zoning

Vision 3*

Market currently meeting community needs without incentives

Vision 4*

Quality of community engagement during your last community survey

Vision 5*

Developer response to your recently published RFQs / RFPs

Vision 6*

Engagement of your citizen boards (like Planning & Zoning) in the development process

Vision 7*

Effectiveness of your existing community and neighborhood engagement programs

Policy

Policy 1*

Support elected officials demonstrate for staff recommendations

Policy 2*

Effectiveness of development incentive programs to meet stated objectives

Policy 3*

Success of your business retention + expansion program

Policy 4*

Recent community support for development projects

Policy 5*

Alignment of development by right with the community vision

Policy 6*

Planning + Review process cost compared to nearby and comparable cities

Policy 7*

Ease of accommodating development variance requests

Political Tetrad Green Flags

Answer 'Yes' or 'No' to the following questions to see how many green flags your municipality and the catalyst site + planned use has.

Municipal

Municipal O1*

Is your comprehensive plan less than 7 years old?

Yes

Municipal O2*

Are your neighborhood / strategic plans less than 3 years old?

Yes

Municipal O3*

Do you measure the holistic impact of development projects to your community?

Yes

Municipal O4*

Do you practice proactive annexations according to your comprehensive or strategic plans?

Yes

Municipal O5*

Do your strategic actions directly relate to your community vision?

Yes

Municipal O6*

Do your key performance measurements directly connect to strategic actions?

Yes

Municipal O7*

Do your key performance measurements directly connect to strategic actions?

Yes

Municipal O8*

Do you coordinate with other economic development or non-profit organizations focused on development and the local economy?

Yes

Municipal O9*

Do you 'fast track' entitlements on targeted community development projects that specifically meet your strategic objectives?

Yes

Financial Tetrad

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Financial Municipal Conditional

Rate the following items in your community on a scale from 1-5 overall, with 1 being 'Poor' and 5 being 'Excellent'.

Revenues

Revenues 1*

Leverage of public to private funds invested in recent projects

Revenues 2*

Growth of your municipal revenue in the last 5 years

Revenues 3*

Growth of your county revenue in the last 5 years

Revenues 4*

Diversity of your municipal revenue sources

Revenues 5*

Relationship with other taxing districts that rely on property tax revenue

Fiscal

Fiscal Programs 1*

Involvement of the community in economic incentive programs

Fiscal Programs 2*

Capital Improvement Plan fund capacity

Fiscal Programs 3*

Municipal funding for addressing environmental remediation aspects of redevelopment projects

Fiscal Programs 4*

Recurring community funding for environmental justice

Fiscal Programs 5*

Recurring community funding for environmental stewardship

Fiscal Programs 6*

Recurring community funding for environmental hazard remediation and addressing other community concerns related to health and well-being

Financial Tetrad Green Flags

Answer 'Yes' or 'No' to the following questions to see how many green flags your municipality and the catalyst site + planned use have.

Municipal

Municipal F1*

Do you have access to Tax Increment Financing (TIF)?

Yes

Municipal F2*

Do you use sales tax shareback agreements?

Yes

Municipal F3*

Do you work with metro districts or special improvement districts in your area?

Yes

Municipal F4*

Do you have market demand for available sites in similar zones?

Yes

Municipal F5*

Do you have a recent housing study?

Yes

Municipal F6*

Do you have a recent market study?

Yes

Legal Tetrad

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Legal Municipal Conditional

Rate the following items in your community on a scale from 1-5 overall, with 1 being 'Poor' and 5 being 'Excellent'.

Entitlements 1*

Speed of your planning + review process

Entitlements 2*

Simplicity and predictability of your land use code

Entitlements 3*

How well your zoning reflects what is physically possible

Entitlements 4*

How well your zoning reflects market realities

Entitlements 5*

How well your zoning anticipates development patterns

Entitlements 6*

How productive your citizen boards are when engaging in development review

Entitlements 7*

Review process accommodating variance requests without significant delay

Entitlements 8*

Recent / future annexation matching community goals

Entitlements 9*

The Three-Mile Plan incorporates market and development needs

Legal Tetrad Green Flags

Answer 'Yes' or 'No' to the following questions to see how many green flags your municipality and the catalyst site + planned use have.

Municipal

Municipal L1*

Has your zoning map been updated in the past 5 years?

Yes

Municipal L2*

Do you allow administrative approvals for projects that meet development goals?

Yes

Municipal L3*

Does annexation include rezoning?

Yes

Municipal L4*

Does your community have historic preservation or other planning programs that apply to new or infill development?

Yes

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Closing

Permissions to share with resource partners*

I allow DCI to share aggregate information about my municipal and site feasibility in an effort to connect my community with funding and resource partners

Yes

Survey Review

How easy was it to complete the Feasibility Tetrad?

Additional Comments

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

FEASIBILITY TETRAD

The Feasibility Tetrad will provide prompts for your community, and a review of your site, to capture how prepared you are in the following four areas (Physical, Financial, Political, and Legal) with sub-categories to address critical components of a project.

Each prompt will be scored with a 1-4 rubric and totaled to provide a category score. The process will reveal your community and project strengths, areas prime for leveraged improvement, or gaps to address before moving forward with confidence.

WHAT DO MY SCORES MEAN?

TO MY COMMUNITY

The scores will inform staff and elected officials of the next steps for reducing risk in community infrastructure, transportation, legal and development processes, etc. It can inform what studies could be conducted next or simple municipal functions to examine.

TO DEVELOPERS OR INVESTORS

The analysis of the Feasibility Tetrad will give developers or investors a full picture of the context for development in your community. Incentivize private-sector support for your weaknesses, and boast about your community strengths.

Feasibility Assessment: Municipal Political Module Part 2

Feasibility Assessment: Political

To Successfully Complete this Activity...

DCI Feasibility Tetrad for Municipal Review

Physical Tetrad

Physical Municipal Conditional Section

Transportation

Environmental

Engineering

Physical Tetrad Green Flags

Municipal

Political Tetrad

Political Municipal Conditional

Vision

Policy

Political Tetrad Green Flags

Municipal

Financial Tetrad

Financial Municipal Conditional

Revenues

Fiscal

Financial Tetrad Green Flags

Municipal

Legal Tetrad

Legal Municipal Conditional

Legal Tetrad Green Flags

Municipal

Closing

FEASIBILITY TETRAD

WHAT DO MY SCORES MEAN?

TO MY COMMUNITY

TO DEVELOPERS OR INVESTORS

NEED HELP? Email [email protected] or go back to the Module Welcome Page to see the full structure and submit questions via the form.

When You're Done with the Activity click "Mark Complete" and go to the Next Lesson